OK, After lots of bitching and complaining, I finally got my XO!!! I love it. It is funny though--after many, many calls and lots of assorted excusses, I called yet again. Got the line about, "it will ship in mid February or March." Told the operator that I had made a complaint to my Attorney General's office. Well, 2 days later, by priority mail, low and behold my XO arrived. Coincidence? I don't think so. It took a week for the e-mail notice and T-Mobile info to come after we got the actual XO.

But, anyway, back to topic. I love my XO. I am still figuring some things out. It is really amazing. It is suposed to be mine. I wanted it so that I could keep in touch with the world by my on-line journal during a month-long bicycle tour this summer. But my husband has been using it more than me! He figured out that he can put his forest service maps on it and refer to them out in the field when hiking. Likes that. I've already been downloading some free e-books and reading them. Used it for some stuff at work also. The students in my classroom were fascinated by it. It's been a hot topic of discussion at my school, where I am the only kid to have one. (Some of the teachers are asking how they can get one. Had to tell them it's too late, at least for now. G1G1 is over.) Having lots of fun driving around and looking for wireless hotspots. It's fun to watch the little colored dots pop up on the screen when we find a new hotspot. We've been doing a lot of parking lately. But it is to play with the computer whenever we find a patch of good hotspots. We're moving to a new city soon and we discovered that they have free wireless hotspots around the city, provided by the city. That's cool. We just have to find out where all the hotspots are.

I'm not much of a computer geek, so I am having some trouble figuring out some of the things since there are no instructions. I have been looking at the stuff on line and wading through that to help me figure things out. It is a lot of experimentation and trial and error. I guess that is the way that kids would use it, though.

I still think this is a great concept and I hope it gets into US schools soon. I also hope that in the future OLPC takes a more serious look at shipping issues before they try this again.

mommatanya wrote:OK, After lots of bitching and complaining, I finally got my XO!!! I love it. It is funny though--after many, many calls and lots of assorted excusses, I called yet again. Got the line about, "it will ship in mid February or March." Told the operator that I had made a complaint to my Attorney General's office. Well, 2 days later, by priority mail, low and behold my XO arrived. Coincidence? I don't think so. It took a week for the e-mail notice and T-Mobile info to come after we got the actual XO.

But, anyway, back to topic. I love my XO. I am still figuring some things out. It is really amazing. It is suposed to be mine. I wanted it so that I could keep in touch with the world by my on-line journal during a month-long bicycle tour this summer. But my husband has been using it more than me! He figured out that he can put his forest service maps on it and refer to them out in the field when hiking. Likes that. I've already been downloading some free e-books and reading them. Used it for some stuff at work also. The students in my classroom were fascinated by it. It's been a hot topic of discussion at my school, where I am the only kid to have one. (Some of the teachers are asking how they can get one. Had to tell them it's too late, at least for now. G1G1 is over.) Having lots of fun driving around and looking for wireless hotspots. It's fun to watch the little colored dots pop up on the screen when we find a new hotspot. We've been doing a lot of parking lately. But it is to play with the computer whenever we find a patch of good hotspots. We're moving to a new city soon and we discovered that they have free wireless hotspots around the city, provided by the city. That's cool. We just have to find out where all the hotspots are.

I'm not much of a computer geek, so I am having some trouble figuring out some of the things since there are no instructions. I have been looking at the stuff on line and wading through that to help me figure things out. It is a lot of experimentation and trial and error. I guess that is the way that kids would use it, though.

I still think this is a great concept and I hope it gets into US schools soon. I also hope that in the future OLPC takes a more serious look at shipping issues before they try this again.

Any plans for charging the XO on your trip?

Sounds like you would have a good reason to see if you could figure out some sort of bicycle charger for it